


Madeleine

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Shark (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-20
Updated: 2007-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1636139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Madeleine leaves the DA.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Madeleine

**Author's Note:**

> Written for anotherjuxtaposition

 

 

"I've got an airtight case if he tries anything. He knows it, I know it. I don't need you."

"That's a lie. You know that, too, don't you?"

The woman across the desk exhales. "Why would you want to... Give me one good reason to believe you."

She settles into her chair, crossing her legs. "I can tell you the approach he's taking with each of the witnesses when they come through--"

"I can guess."

"--the story he's building for the trial--"

"Doesn't matter to me whether he's building the hanging gardens of Babylon."

"--and the measures he's been using to find circumstantial evidence he can use to find a direction for the case."

At this, Nicolette Ross stills. Her fingers hover above the keyboard, motionless. "If you're serious about this, you know that he'll kill you," she says, matter-of-fact. "He'll make sure you never work in this town again. He will _bury you alive_."

Madeleine smiles faintly. "Well, if you want any of what I can deliver, you'll just have to make sure he doesn't, won't you?"

 

 

 

 

On Monday morning, Nicolette Ross saunters back into their lives.

She strides into their war room, where they have pictures pinned up, speculations scrawled in markers across clear panes. "Sebastian," she says, and wiggles her fingers in a little wave. "Miss me?"

They all whirl. Raina breaks off in the middle of protesting breaking into the defendant's house and steps forward, blocking Ross. Her mouth presses into a flat line. It would have looked much more impressive with Isaac looming up ominously behind her, but he's away on business - probably threatening dime-store clerks again - she does a fairly good impression of death in business dress. Ross, however, looks unfazed.

Stark stands, all grim smiles and upturned hands. "Hey, Nicky! How could I not? How's Max Lundy, huh? Enjoying his communal showers, I hope? And, if you don't mind my asking, how the hell did you get in here?"

Ross treats him to a faintly condescending smile. "Don't be bitter, Stark. Just because security people don't like you... Anyway, I'm here on a different set of business." She nods at Madeleine. "Ready?"

"Ready?" Stark chuckles in annoyance. "Ready for what, an incredibly--"

Madeleine rises. "Consider this my two weeks' notice," she says clearly.

For a moment, every sound in the room evaporates. Danny Reyes is the first to break the silence. "You are _not_ serious," he says.

"Miss Poe and I have arrived on an agreement," Ross says smoothly as Madeleine pushes back her chair and rises to her feet. "She's due to start work at Fox, Bender, & Derkin in exactly two weeks."

"But that's--"

"Officially, we haven't even launched our investigation yet," Madeleine points out. Which is true - officially, anyway. Unofficially, while Cutler examines his own shoes and Jessica carefully tailors the truth to slot into her moral compass without jamming the mechanism, Stark is pulling every favor anyone's ever owed him to tail the suspect and pry open a story with an antagonist to prosecute. It's a widely-held theory that the culprit is someone among Ross' less-than-selective clientele, but nothing's been written down, mostly because nothing's legal yet.

As usual, the details have been divided and shared between the team. And while Stark can call her on several other things, this is not one of them: she's got enough dirt on him to keep that safe.

She can feel Stark's eyes settling on her, narrowing, judging, filing through her past to calculate the weight of every mistake she's ever made. They weigh lighter on her than they ever have before, and she straightens against his gaze.

"Moving a couple links down the food chain, aren't you?" he says jovially at last.

Madeleine shrugs slenderly and paces to stand by Ross. "What can I say," she says. "I've learned everything I can here. Time to move on."

"What makes you think that you've--"

"Rule number one: trial is war. There are going to be casualties." She lifts her chin. "Number two: truth is relative, pick one that works." Her eyes meet his to pin him where he stands. "Did I miss anything?"

"Clearly everything that came after the first day, for a start." He crosses his arms and steps close. "You listen to me," Stark says, voice low. "I am going to--"

"Make sure I never work in prosecuting or defending ever again." Ross isn't saying a word to help or hinder her, which is fine. At least she knows where she isn't needed - a considerable improvement on some of the people Madeleine's worked with. And it is a risk - Madeleine knows that - but after the last case, Stark's reputation is teetering over an abyss right now. It'll be seen as disloyal, but nobody, if pressed, would ever deny that they wouldn't have done the same thing. She smiles up at Stark: a small, thin smile. "I've heard that one before."

Stark laughs. "Nice guess. I was going to say 'breathe freely', but hey, whatever works for you."

She bends her head to him, briefly. "You taught me a lot," she says, possibly the last conciliatory thing she's ever going to voice out loud. Then the moment's gone, she lifts her eyes, and there's a gleaming smile. "That's why you're going to lose."

Stark stares at her, then twists back to the group. They're all standing conveniently by the boards, blocking all sight of the office's advances on the case so far. The notes that Madeleine left behind have already been ostentatiously dropped into a waste bin by Raina, who is staring down at them in deep distaste.

"Fine," he says. "Take the day off. Go treat yourself to an ice cream and figure out where the hell your sanity's gone."

There's not really much left to say. She nods at him one last time and leaves on Nicolette Ross' heels.

 

 

 

 

Raina catches up with her outside of the building. With a little sigh, Madeleine turns to face her.

She doesn't even have the grace to be out of breath. Her nostrils flare tightly, but there's no sign of even the faintest weakness in her face. "I just want to know," she says coolly, "what the _hell_ you think you're doing."

Madeleine waits for Raina to elaborate. When she doesn't, Madeleine shrugs. "I always intended to become a defense attorney," she says. "I thought that my saying on the first day that Stark started working with us would have made it clear."

"But you waited until the middle of the investigation--"

"It was the best time," she says evenly. "This way, I'll have more to offer to the firm that hired me: a fresh perspective on their case as well as some information on the opposing side. If I'd left before, I wouldn't have had anything concrete to give them, and they would have had no reason to take me on." Fox, Bender, and Derkham is a fairly prestigious firm. It's a good place to settle - a little lower than she would have anticipated all those years ago in law school, but not bad, considering. "I admit, it's taking a risk. But since we haven't officially launched an investigation, I'm not in breach of anything."

It's narrow, and if they were any looser on time, Stark might actually choose to argue the point and find a way to get her disbarred. But the case is filtering onto every television in the country. By the time he's actually prepared to deal with her, she'll have settled into the firm and be too firmly entrenched to root out.

Raina stares at her for a long, brittle moment. It would probably be easier if Raina could hit her, but that would bring in all sorts of additional complications about assault. What with Madeleine's unexpected desertion, Stark's team can't take another strike and Raina knows it. She's standing very still, her breathing harsh and shallow as if the effect of her run has caught up with her at last.

"Ross deserves you," she says tightly, and spins on her heel to go back to the building.

 

 

 

 

"Don't you think that you were a little overdramatic back there?"

"Stark respects overdramatics," Madeleine says. A little line stretches between her brows. "Actually, it might be the only thing he respects."

Ross grins briefly downward. "Oh, no," she says, "not the _only_ thing." Madeleine wrinkles her nose even as she laughs. After a moment, Ross raises her eyebrows. "Is that why you left? Because you didn't get any respect?"

"I left," Madeleine says, a trifle dryly, "because I had motive, opportunity, and the perfect weapon."

"Thinking like a murderer." Ross nods. "No wonder Stark was so sulky about losing you."

There's a sharp, uncomfortable silence.

"I don't expect you to trust me immediately," Madeleine starts.

"Which is good, because I don't."

"But I _am_ going to ask that, whatever you end up putting me on, you let me do what I'm assigned to do." Madeleine looks at her directly, which means as little as it did when she looked at Stark. Level eyes aren't a sign of trustworthiness, but it means a great deal to other people, so she does it. "I'm here for one thing, and it's not to play mind-games with an ex-colleague of Stark's."

"So you're not leaving on a whim, or because you're eventually going to go back to him with all the information that this firm has on the case."

Madeleine shakes her head. "Not unless the wind changes," she sighs flippantly.

Ross only looks at her, for so long a moment that Madeleine starts to feel a little awkward. At last, just when Ross looks as if she's about to kick all her out of her office, the other woman says, "Good. Glad to hear that we'll be able to work together." She stands, extending a hand to Madeleine in mute congratulations. "An unofficial welcome to Fox, Bender & Derkham, Miss Poe. Let's talk about the case."

 

 

 

 

She starts the drive home only to get caught in the usual L.A. traffic, which is, she thinks, probably par for the course. It's been a long day.

She's been at the DA's for, God, years. It should feel more painful than this; there should be sentimentality, at least, a brief pang of loss and fear for the mistake she might be making. After all, Stark could still have more to offer her, more to teach. Tangled in that hope, she's missed sign after sign that he's going downhill, slipping up, getting closer and closer to disbarment with each mistake and lost opportunity.

She's been sitting there for weeks, waiting for him to say something new when she should have known better.

People get old. They lose their touch. They fail. She's always thought of them that way: clocks ticking down to the instant when they will buckle and break at last. Even the best eventually lose track of themselves and stumble. But, caught up in the excitement of trials and victory after victory, she stopped looking for those tell-tale signs when she should have been pressing harder than ever, searching for weaknesses.

It dawned on her suddenly, unexpectedly, as she watched him at the crime scene for the last case. All his advice is old and recycled; all his tricks are the tricks of an old dog. He's old, a man surrounded by ghosts, chasing after justice because the repercussions of his former practices were too much to bear. What might have once been strength is now just a shadow falling to hide all his weaknesses.

There's only one reason Stark's still winning, and it's because nobody else has caught onto his routine. But they will, sooner or later - and it can't hurt them if she gives them a little nudge in the right direction. Stark hasn't lost a case since the first Callison trial. It's high time someone who's not a serial killer gave him another run for his money.

He's old and moralistic, despite all the illegal shortcuts he risks in order to get his way. Whereas she's still very young (Madeleine thinks carefully, clinically). It'll be a while before she gets to that stage, and until then, she might as well seize every challenge she can find.

 


End file.
